Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In that same year, France sold St.
Croix to the Danish West India Com-
pany, which divided the island into
plantations, boosting the already flour-
ishing slave trade. Some historians say
that nearly 250,000 slaves were sold
on the auction blocks at Charlotte
Amalie before being sent elsewhere,
often to America's South. By 1792, Denmark changed its tune and announced that it
officially planned to end the slave trade. It was not until 1848, however, that it did
so. The British had freed their 5,133 slaves in 1834.
The great economic boom that resulted from the Virgin Islands plantations began
to wilt by the 1820s. The introduction of the sugar beet virtually bankrupted planta-
tion owners, as the demand for cane sugar drastically declined. Cuba eventually took
over the sugar market in the Caribbean. By 1872, the British had so little interest in
the British Virgins that they placed them in the loosely conceived and administered
Federation of the Leeward Islands.
Enter the United States
In 1867, the United States attempted to purchase the islands from Denmark, but the
treaty was rejected by the U.S. Senate in 1870; the asking price was $7.5 million.
Following its acquisition of Puerto Rico in 1902, the United States expressed
renewed interest in acquiring the Danish islands. This time, the United States
offered to pay only $5 million, and the Danish parliament spurned the offer.
On the eve of its entry into World War I, the U.S. Navy began to fear a possible
German takeover of the islands. The United States was concerned that the Kaiser's
navy, using the islands as a base, might prey on shipping through the Panama Canal.
After renewed attempts by the United States to purchase the islands, Denmark
agreed to sell them in 1916 for $25 million, a staggering sum to pay for island real
estate in those days.
Impressions
Viewed from every point except remote
naval contingencies, it was unfortunate
we ever acquired these islands.
—President Herbert Hoover, 1931
2
DATELINE
1674
King Louis XIV of France makes St.
Croix part of his empire.
1493
Columbus sails by the Virgin
Islands, lands on St. Croix, and is
attacked by Carib Indians.
1717
Danish planters from St. Thomas
cultivate plantations on St. John.
1724
St. Thomas is declared a free port.
1625
Dutch and English establish
frontier outposts on St. Croix.
1733
Danish West India Company
purchases St. Croix from France;
slaves revolt on St. John.
1650
Spanish forces from Puerto Rico
overrun English garrison on
St. Croix.
1792
Denmark announces plans to
abandon the slave trade.
1653
St. Croix taken over by the Knights
of Malta.
1807-15
England occupies Danish Virgin
Islands.
1671
Danes begin settlement of
St. Thomas.
1820s
Sugar plantations on the Virgin
Islands begin to see a loss in
profi ts.
1672
England adds British Virgin Islands
to its empire.
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